With a Call for Unity, the Festival of Embraces Began in Chile

While inaugurating the Festival of Embraces today, the President of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), Lautaro Carmona, condemned the US aggression against Venezuela and called for unity to confront this war-mongering escalation.

Carmona recalled that American forces entered Venezuelan territory to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and denounced that Washington's sole aim is to seize that country's oil and natural resources.

"Today it is Venezuelan oil, tomorrow it could be copper and lithium," he warned.

"At this hour, the US head of state continues to threaten Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua, Cuba, and all the countries and peoples of the world that—in his view—threaten his interests," he said.

The top leader of the Communist Party called on all people and organizations to promote a great movement for peace.

Carmona was the main speaker at the opening ceremony of the Festival of Embraces, which this year is being held at the stadium in the capital district of Recoleta.

It is a space that for decades has been a meeting point for culture, politics, music, and fraternal debate, said the mayor of that municipality, Fares Jadue.

"Today we cannot meet without taking responsibility for the historic moment that Chile and the world are experiencing," he stated.

Jadue expressed his concern over the genocide that Israel is committing in Gaza and over the aggressions of Donald Trump's government against Venezuela, a people who—he said—have the sovereign right to decide their own destiny.

"Today, this international context intersects with an equally challenging national scenario," he declared, referring to the triumph of the extreme right in the recent elections in Chile.

Political and social leaders, local residents, ministers, legislators, members of the diplomatic corps, and guests from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, France, and Puerto Rico participated in the opening of the event.

The two-day gathering is held under the motto "For Peace, Democracy, and the Sovereignty of Peoples."